Reappraising AIDS Vol. 2, no. 1

VOLUME 2, NUMBER 1, PAGE 4 REAPPREAISING AIDS NOVEMBER 1994

Charles Geshekter
Charles Geshekter, spoke on "rethinking the AIDS
epidemic in Africa." Official statistics, he maintained,
have been unreliable to the point of absurdity. Africa
is supposed to be saturated with HIV, its population
ravaged by the AIDS epidemic. And yet, since
1981 - thirteen years - there have been only 151,000
confirmed AIDS cases in all of Africa. Most AIDS cases
are diagnosed on clinical symptoms alone. The HIV
antibody tests, ELISA and Western Blot, are almost
useless, as they cross-react with antibodies to many
diseases that are endemic to Africa. Furthermore, the
symptoms attributed to "AIDS" are indistinguishable from
those that have plagued Africa since the beginning of
the 20th century. Geshekter debunked the media myth
that the African AIDS catastrophe can only be averted
through the intervention of Western science. Particularly
dangerous is the pressure to use AZT on HIV-positive
Africans.
Warren Winkelstein
Warren Winkelstein, Professor of Public Health at Berkeley,
spoke on"Inferences from epidemiological data." His
brief talk mostly presented points from the report he had
co-authored with Michael Ascher. He showed a slide, in
which none of the HIV-negative men developed AIDS,
whereas those who were either HIV-positive upon entry
into the study, or became so later, did. Winkelstein
addressed Bryan Ellison's accusation, that at least 45 HIVnegative men had developed AIDS-diseases. This was
ridiculous, said Winkelstein, because if these 45 men had
really had AIDS, then 36 of them ought to have died,
according to the latest AIDS projections. However, only
[ONLYI] 7 of them had died. Winkelstein's logic is faulty.
No matter how sick the 45 HIV-negative men were, they
could not officially have been diagnosed as having
"AIDS." Therefore, they would not have received a
prognosis of death, and they would not have been
prescribed AZT! One could use Winkelstein's data to
argue that an AIDS diagnosis is deadlier than AIDS itself.
(Certain questions remain regarding Ellison's HIV- cases
and they need further examination by The Group.
The Eds.)
The Final Panel
For the final panel, all of the speakers came on stage.
None of the pro-HIV speakers even attempted to rebut
the dozens of arguments that had been advanced
against the HIV-AIDS hypothesis. On the whole the event
was a triumph for the side questioning the AIDS
orthodoxies, The AIDS-skeptics achieved a critical mass.
and spoke with confidence and authority. Those who
attempted to defend the official dogmas were
confused and defensive; they failed to rebut or even
acknowledge the points made by the skeptics, and in
short, they put on a very poor show. It is clear that the
official AIDS experts cannot compete in a free and open
debate. The principle of "balance" should be applied to
all future AIDS programs. Never again should only the

HIV-AIDS point-of-view be represented.
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NOTICE
Persons on the mailing list for Rethinking AIDS may
recently have receivedan advertisement for a book
entitled Why we will Never Win the War on AIDS, by Bryan
Ellison and Peter Duesberg. This advertisement was sent
out without the approval of Peter Duesberg or the
members of the Editorial Board of Rethinking AIDS.
The mailing was one of several matters that caused a
long-overdue reorganization of the Newsletter. Future
communications with The Group should be addressed to
the Girard Avenue address in San Diego (see box).
What is being advertised is a manuscript by Ellison and
Duesberg under contract to St. Martin's Press. The
management of St. Martin's requested editorial changes
which were aimed not at changing the basic thesis of the
book, but at clarifying its message and removing ungenerous and unnecessary innuendos that might detract form
the thesis. The changes were acceptable to Duesberg
but not to Ellison, who refused to cooperate with Duesberg
of the publisher. Ellison subsequently published the manuscript privately and offered it for mail-order sale, listing
Duesberg as Co-author without Duesberg's permission or
approval.
This outcome is tragic, because the manuscript has the
makings of a potentially excellent book. Its basic account
of the scientific and political history of AIDS and HIV needs
to be brought out by a major publisher in a form that will
allow the book to have the greatest public impact.
Unfortunately, Bryan Ellison's actions may have make this
very difficult to Achieve.
PUBLISHER'S STATEMENT
The Group will continue to publish its newsletter from its
new address in San Diego. The name has been changed
from "RETHINKING AIDS" to REAPPRAISiNG AIDS in order
to distance ourselves from the former publisher of the
newsletter and his activities. As a consequence of
this change, we have lost the mailing list for The Group's
newsletter. May we ask you to return the enclosed
envelope confirming or correcting your address and
enclosing a check for the renewal of your subscription.
EDITORIAL BOARD
Eleen Baumann, Ph.D. Tom Bethell
Harvey Bialy, Ph.D Peter H. Duesberg, Ph.D.
Celia Farber Charles L. Geshekter, Ph.D.
Philip E. Johnson, J.D. Robert W. Mover, F.S.A.
Russell Schoch Gordon T. Stewart, M.D.
Charles A. Thomas Jr. Ph.D.
REAPPRAISING AIDS
is a monthly publication of The Group
for Scientific Reappraisal of the HIV/AIDS Hypothesis.
Charles A. Thomas, Jr., Publisher
7514a Giard Ae.,2 #13
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